


Don't let me forget about you.

by TesseTesseTesse



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Bring tissues, Character Death, Confusion, Dementia, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Headaches & Migraines, Hurt/Comfort, Memory Alteration, Memory Loss, Sick Character, Sickfic, Spoilers, World of Ruin, seriously... tissues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 15:39:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12257271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TesseTesseTesse/pseuds/TesseTesseTesse
Summary: Sadly, Prompto was never meant to live for long.





	Don't let me forget about you.

**Author's Note:**

> “The sorry thing about loss is it’s not the pain that beats me, but the fear the pain will pass, that sooner or later I will pull myself together and move on. That’s the killing blow. To know that someday down the line, no matter how hard I fight it, I will forget how it felt to love you.”
> 
> \- Beau Taplin • M e m o r y D e l e t e d

Prompto’s only 28 when he notices it for the first time - that little flashing zigzag vying for attention in the corner of his vision. It makes his eyes water and his teeth tingle as it swirls, grows, cuts across his field of view, effectively splitting the ground in front of him into two flickering halves. 

The timing couldn’t be worse he thinks as he slowly trudges, head down and blinking furiously, across the Hammerhead forecourt towards Cindy and the group of Kingsglaive that have assembled there. A couple of Red Giants around the Three Valleys have been causing problems for the local hunters this past week, and this morning they heard reports that they’re gathering with another group of demons around the main power line junction supplying Hammerhead. He and the Glaives are supposed to be heading out in a few minutes to take the demons out before the power supply is cut and Hammerhead is plunged into darkness.

But right now he can feel the blood draining away from his face and the world ebbing gently from side to side. And he’s seeing two of everything in front of him. How’s he supposed to aim a gun?

He’s starting to think he might vomit.

As he reaches the small group gathered under the lights of the old gas station he’s dimly aware of Cindy talking, can hear her answering an older Glaives’ questions on the foibles of the truck she’s loaning them for this mission. 

The flickering line in his eyes is starting to fade but his head is really starting to hurt now. And is everything around him spinning?

Without thinking he shoots a hand out and grabs the nearest thing within reach to steady himself, closing his eyes and sucking in several deep breaths, trying desperately not to puke. It’s only when he hears a gruff voice asking him if he’s alright that he realises that the nearest thing within reach was Jonah, the grizzled looking Glaive from Old Lestallum who’s been helping them out here these past few months. Then there’s a cool hand on his head, and he’s enveloped by the scent of soap and motor grease that he’s come to associate with Cindy. 

‘Prompto, honey, ya feelin’ alright?’

He cracks his eyes open and, somewhere in amongst the haze of blinding pain the action brings, catches her concerned gaze as she takes in the no doubt pitiful looking sight before her. She brings the back of her hand from his forehead to his cheek, checking his temperature, and he kicks himself. There’s no time for him to be getting sick right now and opens his mouth to tell her he’s fine, immediately clamping it shut against the bile he feels rising in his throat. Instead he settles for what he hopes was a convincing nod that feels a bit like what he imagines being shot in the head feels like, and the world suddenly lurches the right. He closes his eyes again.

“Oh nuh-uh. You ain’t goin’ nowhere in that state.” She moves to his side, dragging one of his arms over her slender shoulders and supporting his weight as he realises it’s not just dizziness making the world around him sway, he’s barely staying upright. "What's hurtin'?" 

He licks his lips a few times, and manages to grind out "my head, it's..." before swallowing convulsively against the rising swell of nausea. 

Aparently, those few words are enough for Cindy though, who he hears 'tsk' under her breath before addressing the others. “Y’all can handle this without him, right?”

There's a few affirmative grunts from the Glaives and some parting words, and then she’s tugging him back towards the closet-come-bunkroom at the back of the garage that’s been his home for the past several years. “C’mon hon, let’s get you to bed.’ 

At any other time Prompto would have jumped for joy hearing his goddess of the gears say those words to him. Today all he can do is try not to keel over as she half supports/half drags him to his room.

A few moments later and she’s helping him climb into his bunk, unlacing and removing his boots and pulling his blanket (and an extra comforter for good measure) around his shivering body. Then she says something about finding pain relief and a bucket and he hears her footsteps hurrying away. 

Normally he’d be mortified, having poor Cindy run around after him like this (he’s had a crush on her since forever ago, and the guys are supposed to take care of the girls, right?) but his head is exploding and his stomach is doing somersaults and he honestly feels like he might be dying, so he just focusses on breathing deep breaths in and out and trying not to gnash holes in his teeth. 

He feels the bed dip when she’s back, cracking a potion over him which takes some of the edge off his headache and lessons it to the second-worst pain he’s ever felt in his life. ‘I’m afraid that’s all we could spare right now, what with the mission and all. Ya feelin’ any better?’

She sounds so worried. He doesn’t want her to be worried. Not about him. He’s not worth her worry. He opens watery eyes and tries for a small smile. 

‘A little. Aside from the herd of chocobos stampeding around my head that is.’ His voice is so pathetic and barely recognisable as his own, but he feels a small sense of accomplishment when she chuckles softly and his smile grows wider. ‘Sorry I um... flaked out of the mission.’

‘Forget about it hon,’ she replies warmly. ‘Seems like one hell of a mighty bad migraine ya got there. You had those before?’

He thinks it over a moment. ‘Not a boss-level one like this,’ he replies honestly. And then a memory from the past flashes across his mind before he has a chance to stop it, and he feels his smile fade as his eyes water for a different reason. His next words come out in a pained whisper. ‘Noct did for a while.’

The look of pure, unadulterated pity that blooms on Cindy’s pretty features only makes him feel worse, so he lets his eyes drift close again as her hand comes to squeeze his shoulder. It’s no secret that Cindy doesn’t think Noct will ever be back. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t felt the same way from time to time. Eight years of surviving in this demon-filled hellhole had sorely tested his own faith in Noct’s eventual return. 

But he had to keep believing. 

He had to keep believing that the prophecy was real and that the king of light would return to save them all. He had to keep believing that his best friend would return to save him from this perpetual nightmare. If he didn’t believe in that, what was the point in all this? 

Cindy seems to sense that he's done talking for now and sighs sadly, removing her hand as she stands but not without running a finger tenderly across his cheekbone. ‘You rest up now, ya hear? I’ll check in on you later and see if we need to get a doctor out to ya.’

He doesn't reply as she softly closes the door behind here. But as he lays there in the darkness, as cold and alone as he's ever been, a warm tear slides down his cheek.

_Dude, you gotta come back soon, alright. I miss you man..._

If Noct _is_ out there somewhere, he hopes to god he's in a better place than the one he left behind.

The darkness continues ever on.


End file.
